ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Neighbors in North Orange County are divided over a plan to redo one of their busiest streets.
- Plans proposed to redesign Corrine Drive
- Metroplan Orlando wants to add new sidewalks, raised crosswalks
- Some residents are worried the plan would lead to more congestion
It’s no secret to those who live here in North Orange County that Corrine Drive needs an upgrade.
“Corrine has been neglected, it has been the target of toxic neglect,” said Mike Gibbons, who has lived in Baldwin Park with his family for 15 years now.
He says there’s a lot of good things about the Metroplan Orlando's plan.
The planning group wants to add better sidewalks, raise crosswalks to cut down on speeding, and add a shared use path for bicyclists and pedestrians. Aaron Powell, founder of the Orlando Bike Coalition says the separate shared use path will be a game changer for cyclists.
“This is a plan that adds infrastructure, that is there specifically to separate and protect people who are walking and biking and so I think they really hit it out of the park,” Powell said.
But for Gibbons and his neighbors, they’re worried about the part where half of Corrine Drive will be cut down from five lanes to three. They’re also worried rush hour will then become unbearable.
“It’s going to be a parking lot," Gibbons said. "it’s going to be really, really slow and people are going to get frustrated….many of them are going to going through neighborhoods and using residential streets as cut-throughs in a way that isn’t anticipated and the neighbors won’t like."
But Metroplan assured neighbors that the plan won’t congest that side of the street even with the lane reductions.
“So we see about 16,000 cars on that portion versus 23,000 cars on the other portion on the five lane portion so there will be plenty of space for the traffic that’s there,” said Cynthia Lambert, Public Information Manager for Metroplan.
But Gibbons and many others aren't buying it. He says they’ve seen it happen before on a similar road.
“We have that study from a year ago on Curry Ford where that 900 vehicles a day did in fact increase.”
Now this plan is still in the very early stages, and Metroplan Orlando says they’re still not sure who will actually pay for these improvements, whether it be the city of Orlando, or Orange County.
Once they do decide who will take on the project, there's three options Metroplan is proposing to get it done. The most inexpensive would cost around $9.3 million, and the most expensive would cost around $14 million.
Once the project starts, it could take anywhere from five to 10 years to complete.
Metroplan Orlando is still taking public comment on the proposed Corrine Drive plan. Comments can be left here.